Division of Student Affairs

Diverse Faculty & Staff Working Group

April 3, 2019 | 3:00pm | Lighty.360D + AMS – RECAP

Attendees:

Obie Ford, Renny Christopher, Sandra Haynes, Paul Strand, Fran Hermanson, Lisa Gehring, James Dalton, Jim Peterson (proxy for Mary Rezak), Phil Weiler, Dan Records, Theresa Elliott-Cheslek, Phyllis Erdman, Jason Abrams

Group check-in to discuss how we foster equity within the overall search process; the below is a start, but what else do we need?

Current Thoughts / 5 Initiatives

Implicit Bias Awareness Training

• See memo and resources being distributed attached
• Need to build on these interim measures with H.R.S.
  • Jaime Phyllis, Theresa to connect with Renny & Obie on what the Vancouver in person training workshops look like, and continue to build infrastructure (train the trainers to be effective facilitators)
  • As we transition to Zoom, it may be more technically feasible to participate in trainings remotely. Connect with Dion Crommarty to solicit his expertise in this area.
• Contributions towards Equity statements from incoming candidates
  • Discuss how to operationalize this going forward

 System-Wide Equity 101 training (working name)

• Includes equity training + implicit bias awareness training
• Being developed out Student Affairs Equity Training Group (lead by Jaime) – in initial stages
  • Tier 1 toolkit being beta tested this summer w/ stakeholder partners for system-wide rollout Fall’19. Feedback thus far:  General appreciation and receptivity from attendees; attendees who are novices to the language (i.e. equality vs. equity) may need more careful definition.  As facilitators, it’s important to ensure clarity on core guidelines, and foster a space be setup in a way that feels open and inviting and acknowledge that mistakes will be made and allow for vulnerability.
  • Tier 2 toolkit to be developed

Resource Guide

• Need to draft and publish a guide that captures info about life/culture/resources and provides connection to affinity groups (especially for under-represented populations) and is tailored specifically to each specific WSU Campus (Pullman, Spokane, Tri-cities, Vancouver, Everett)
  • Possibly model after ASWSU website currently in place? https://aswsucommunity.wixsite.com/pullmanactivities/about

Equity Advisors

• Neutral 3^rd party individual (not affiliated with a search committee) to meet with incoming faculty/staff to answer questions related to “life/culture at WSU – specific to respective campus”.
• Work in progress; initial conversation stages; working to articulate the following:
  • What we’re looking for in relation to Equity Fellow (and equity advisors)
  • Representation across Colleges/Departments
    • Selection of Equity advisors to be made as a part of a thoughtful process with Dean/Assoc. Dean and ensure we are not overworking new/under-represented faculty who may be working towards tenure; tap in to senior faculty members.
    • Develop clear description on roles/responsibilities for this role
  • Training (attendance at conferences i.e. NCORE)
  • TBD Stipend?
  • Connection to Affinity groups:
    • Black Faculty/Staff Association
    • Asian Pacific Islander Faculty/Staff Association
    • Native Faculty/Staff Association
    • Chicanx/Latinx Faculty/Staff Association
    • Disabled Faculty/Staff and Allies
    • LGBTQ+ Faculty/Staff Association (coming soon)
    • Association of Faculty Women?
    • Any others?
  • Concurrent development of these resources across all campuses
  • Networking with Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Centers in respective towns/cities (Pullman/Moscow, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Everett)
  • How to facilitate active searches and take an active approach in ensuring diversity within applicant pools - reports of searches in process to the Dean

Retention Initiatives

• Look at current retention data
• Discuss and leverage current activities currently in place across all campuses (Obie Ford /Renny Christopher to advise)?
  • 4 C’s reception
  • BASE program
  • Address retention beginning from the point of outreach and recruitment
• “Retaining our Faculties”: convene annual summit modeled after University of Minnesota;  also look at other institutions that may be doing similar https://events.umn.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=event_b&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=C7D4E41D-14A8-4D62-A09E-3F8DD600F0F1

Metric 11 data

• 2018-2019 data has been aggregated and is being submitted to the President & Provost
• In depth analysis reviewed with working group
• Chancellors, Deans, VPs, gets quarterly report for closed recruitments showing reports (self-disclosing) by race/gender.
• Dan Records to connect with Obie Ford to share this in-depth analysis
• Current reporting for current employees is based on self-identification; what can we do to get participation rates higher and can we re-survey current employees as a part of the Modernization Effort? FYI - last re-survey effort was done in 2016 but reporting rates were quite low.
  • Need publicity campaign about how collecting this data ties in to our equity efforts before a re-survey effort is done.

For Follow up:

• Appoint sub-committee leaders to lead up each of the above initiatives
• Begin to meet every other week through end of semester; next meetings scheduled for 4/18 and 4/30
• All 5 Working Groups meeting on 5/1/19